RICHMOND, Va. -- An exhibit of an artist whose work is influenced by his time spent in the United States and Egypt is now on display in Richmond.
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU sits at 601 West Broad Street on the campus of VCU. Visitors will have the chance to see exhibitions from artists from different countries who are showing their work in the United States for the first time.
For many of them, it's the first time their art will be featured in a museum.
"The exhibit is the work of an artist called Ibrahim Ahmed. The title of the show is, "It will Always Come Back To You, " Dominic Willsdon, the executive director, said.
Most of Ibrahim's work is taken from his life story of growing up in the Middle East, living in New Jersey, and back to Egypt where his family is from.
"So the work behind me is made out of all sorts of different kinds of American symbolism that you can find in the streets of his neighborhood at the edge of Cairo," Willsdon said.
"And for Ibrahim, all of this stuff was kind of how deeply the image of America pervades in ordinary lives in cities around the world, in the Middle East, Africa, and other places," Willsdon said.
Ibrahim uses mixed media, sculpture, textiles, photography, and self-portraits of himself and his father in this exhibit. There are two unique pieces in the exhibition, hundreds of fabrics compressed into dense bricks and a chandelier made of materials.
To see and learn more about Ibrahim Ahmed's exhibition, visit the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. The exhibition will run through November 7.
